Forum - View topicWhy We Still Love Digimon
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garfield15
 Posts: 1528 |
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Personally I've always felt Oikawa was a really weak bad guy compared to others in the franchise but the rest of that is spot on
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Yarden
 Posts: 5 |
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Hope, you did a great job with the article. I really appreciate that you tried to make the Digimon discussion relevant to the Tri movies by just going through Adventure 01 and 02. To be fair, these are the more popular series and the ones the majority of fans will remember.
It was also refreshing to see you put the Pokemon VS Digimon debate to a satisfying close. Really, the comparisons of Digimon being a rip off of Pokemon is no different to those who compare Pacific Rim to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Yes, there are superficial similarities, but at least in the case of Pokemon, nothing different to any other anime based off a game. The timing of your article was both exciting and worrying to me, as I have an article on Digimon scheduled to be released on the website I am part of. Thankfully the focus of the articles is different so I don't think it will come across as though I am 'ripping off' your ideas. Awesome that this article has inspired viewers to go back and watch the show. I hope those viewers find they still love each series just as much. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 2020 |
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Probably the biggest episode that touched was when Ken (the emperor from Digimon 2) started remembering his late brother and made up with his parents. I was about 14 but I almost started crying.
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Adv193
Posts: 188 |
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Personally I loved the series before discovering fansubs and got to love it more as it gave me a chance to see what was changed which was for censorship and non-censorship reasons (such as for 6 episodes 34-36 and 40-42 they had their endings changed from the original to create more cliff-hanger style endings which was the weirdest non-censorship edit).
While there is no escaping the shadow of the more-well known english dub, there should at least be more legal streams of the original version (If Netflix could do 3 seasons for 2 years uncut, then someplace else like Crunchyroll should pick these up since it would help deal with the fansub issue). |
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kotelo_
Posts: 117 |
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Somebody needs to grow up.
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Thatguy3331
 Posts: 1795 |
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I was (and still am to an extent) a very stubborn little bastard when it came to trying new things. New Foods, Moving, etc. and this definitely applied to what I watched. Digimon adventure never seemed to appeal to my 6 year old self and adventure 2 even less so. However one summer I did see the mish-mash that was the digimon movie and while as an adult I recognize it as the clusterfuck that it is, as a kid I was extremely mesmerized by the visuals. None of it made sense to me but now I WANTED to know what this thing I was so stubborn against was. My Mom in particular wasn't really thrilled about this new found interest but she didn't restrict me from renting some of the tapes and even though I saw it out of context I was pretty much grabbed by the episodes from the myotismon and Pidemon arcs.
Pokemon was still number one for me as a kid, though that was the TV show as I wouldn't enjoy either franchises at their best (Pokemon=games and Pokespe, Digimon=the shows and movies) until my pre-teens when I became more internet savvy. Before then I was a TV kid and the only websites I went to was cartoonnetwork or Nick (Nick specifically appeared to give a lot of my old computers bugs for some reason and it would begin a long history of my bad luck with computers.) I was a sheltered kid who didn't live in many areas where I could interact with others my own age outside of school and I mostly stayed indoors watching and drawing cartoons. I bring this up because when my mom purchased the first season 3 video tape, I was interested in the series in a way I never was before. Takato drew his own digimon to life and had to explore the city to settle conflicts that not even he was fully aware of and for some reason this change in tone really intrigued my 7 or 8 year old self. Again I never saw tamers in it's full context because I sleep in on most weekends but I saw sparatic episodes and again, I desperately wanted to learn more. Because of my lifestyle as a (mostly) sheltered only child I don't have a whole lot of memories with a whole lot of Kid targeted (or even teen targeted) franchises like a lot of other people and to this day I'm playing catch up just to gain a bit of cultural understanding from my peers in college, who think I'm a weird alien for not playing any major video game series from it's first title in chronological order or for not knowing/seeing any of the major late 80's 90's movies whether they be stand alone or part of a franchise ( star wars, back to the future, Harry Potter, in my freshman year I was forced to watch the lord of the rings movies BACK TO BACK til the dead of night and I have no solid opinion of them because of that) But when it came to animation that was a different story. I learned what youtube was and how it worked and through there I watched the first 3 digimon seasons and finally figured out what I had been missing out on all this time. I enjoyed Adventure and 02 respectively but Tamers is still my favorite to this day (original I know). As a 21 year old I want to revisit the series with it's Japanese track for any extra tid bits, but I have a bit of fondness for the American dub, clunky as it may be at times with Music choices that make no real sense 40% of the time. Yes it's the better kids anime that Pokemon but that matters to me less and less as time goes on as I just want another digimon season that could stack up to adventure or tamers (I saw frontier a while back and remembered being cool with it but after recently re-watching it in Japanese....ugh. I only really like Savers for Marcus punching everything and Agumon and Gaomon's evolution lines) I am cautiously looking forward to Tri and hope that it keeps the same narrative strength that I know the series for having...in spite of the fact that the writing staff seems different from the original two seasons, but hey I'm too negative most of the time anyway so I'll try and have some damn hope for once. |
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ZhonLord
 Posts: 14 |
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To be perfectly honest, I was a little too young to get everything that was going on in Digimon 01 and 02 when it first came out. For me, it was about the great monster fights and the fact that the kids were in actual danger. Pokemon bored me because it was the same thing over and over, Digimon CHANGED over time. The character interactions, the "you're never too old" stuff, and everything else that changed the show from good to great, most of it was lost on me.
Going back and watching it again however, I gotta say it's been really impressive to see just how much progress the show made in terms of capturing emotional depth and IMMENSE character variety from beginning to end, progress that most other series wouldn't capture for another decade at least. I still vote for Tamers as the best digimon series, but I will never lose respect for 01 and 02 for paving the way. |
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lincolen_
Posts: 3 |
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putting aside franchise commercial success, myself and pretty much all my anime loving friends (or childhood cartoon loving freinds for that matter) agree that digimon was the more impactfull show by a good margin.
I think its in large part to the fact that there was actual moral to the stories in term of emotion and virtue. I dont think the years has been very kind on the franchise though. I was a very devote watcher of the first three shows. but when frontier came around and igonred astablished tropes (namely the partner) I drifted away. I have hopes for Tri but I do find time setting a bit odd. we already saw them in high school in adventure two, and most kids who saw the show orignally are probably in collage or beyond. wouldent it be better fit to go a bit more foreword. It would have made since if they were trying to pull new audience but it seems theyre playing the nostalgia card quite strongly. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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I, too, was in the minority who watched both. I had gone from not knowing what Saturday Morning Cartoons even were to watching both. Not sure what started with me first (probably Pokemon), but I received the Blue game, and was mad and insisted that "I wasn't going to get into this fad" (I think pogs had let me down, lol), but the game drew me in, of course. But that got me to watching the show. But there was one problem with the show from a technical aspect: I grew up in the middle of the woods with no cable (so like, 5 channels, 6 if the weather cooperated), and the WB was the fuzzy one, and Fox was the clear one. So of course, I preferred watching Fox when possible as a result. And, better yet, Fox used to air children's programming when I got home from school. So, Digimon was a natural progression there. And while I watched some other things, and totally owned VHSs of Pokemon (I don't think Digimon ever had very many, and Pokemon were easier to find, this was the age of dial-up), Digimon was my favorite show.
But I never forgot it over the years either, when I did move to a suburb, got cable, real internets, etc, I found Digimon online (illegally, naturally, not that I knew), and watched it all again in high school. And then, when New Video Group was awesome enough to release all the Digimon again on affordable sets, you knew I was in! Dub-only was fine (it was what I was nostalgic for, after all), and I bought the first one quickly, but then wait for that mega set down the line for 3 and 4 (and re-gifted 1 and 2). And even after elementary school and high school (I was even watching Frontier in middle school, and found another girl who did too, woke up early just to see it and everything!), definitely never forgot it in college either, it still really holds up, which is awesome! I remember as a kid thinking Joe was the worrywart too, but as an adult, he's probably my favorite character. I liked Izzy then and still do though. I'm sure a lot of things in terms of character depth went over my head when I was younger, but other awesome things always stayed I guess, I only appreciate the show more now. And hell, I even bought season 5, the only season I hadn't seen before. And yeah, I think more people should check it out, it's a fun series, man! Not sure why it doesn't get much love (unless it fell out of the nostalgia range, which it did for me, but I'm glad I've seen it now!), not sure how I feel on season 6. Season 4 is a clear low point on characters and plot imo (abandoning half the cast after the sixth ranger joins to focus on the two leads), but I still like it. But dude, Marcus in season 5 has to punch Digimon to let his evolve! He goes up and punches the final bosses and everything (and it actually hurts them!). And I do award season 5 the best transformation sequences. All CGI, yes, but better CGI than season 1, and they were visually interesting and uniform. But season 1 still wins in character development, and it's awesome for it. Can't wait for Tri! And while I haven't watched the Pokemon anime since sometime during Jhoto (I mean, there were never any real stakes, that's always a let down, guess it bored me), I still sure as hell play the games! All the damn time too, love those things! |
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TsukasaElkKite
 Posts: 3998 |
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Digimon was part of my gateway to anime. I still love it.
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Splitter
 Posts: 1276 Location: Knockin' on Heaven's Door |
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I was 12 years old when the very first season of Digimon made it to Japan. Being in middle school at the time, I was at that point where watching cartoons wasn't considered cool anymore, and family and friends alike tried to convince me in many different ways that I needed to grow up and stop obsessing over a silly kids show.
But even if it was a kids show, and silly as it could be, Digimon did something that no other kids show I had seen had really done at that point. It treated me like I was growing up. Yes, there was stuff like the DC Animated Universe at that point that had mature themes and elements. It wasn't like Digimon was the first kids show with mature themes, but it was special because it was kids relatively close to my own age sorting out their own character flaws and growing as people. Hope mentioned the episode where we find out about Tai's reckless selfish behavior resulting in Kari winding up in the hospital, and when he's slapped offscreen, I remember being emotionally shaken by what I had seen. Digimon never glossed over the fact that just because you are a kid doesn't mean you don't have regrets or fears or flaws to overcome. It accepted that that was a part of life, even at such a young age. Having that kind of respect for a young audience was revolutionary to me. |
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zellkaiser
Posts: 3 |
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Similar to cheshire1501, in Indonesia, a country with 250 million population, Digimon was and still is a big hit because it's one of longest running sunday anime that made it's way here, from 1999 to 2015 (that's 16 years).
It was aired nationwide in one of the local television, from season 1 all the way to Xros Wars this year, and boy you would expect many children to wake up every morning and look forward to watch this show among other anime like Dragon Ball or Sailor Moon, especially in the 90's where anime on the internet hasn't been a thing back then. Last edited by zellkaiser on Sat Nov 14, 2015 3:35 am; edited 1 time in total |
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louis6578
 Posts: 1873 |
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So... I just watched Digimon on Netflix for the first time a few months ago. I stopped after a few episodes of Frontier (no Netflix and I feel kind of guilty watching on fan-run sites, so I'm just gonna save up for the DVD). My opinion?
Digimon Adventure was a great kid's show. It's not the greatest one ever, but it's miles above what Pokemon offered at its finest points. Predictable, yet fun. I only wish that the English Dub could have used better music. Hey Digimon is a pretty insulting thing to play during an emotional death scene transformation. Adventure 02 is bad. The new characters were annoying, I found that the towers got old fast, and aside from Steve Blum being in it, and the villain being surprisingly sympathetic at the end, I don't feel as inclined to rewatch it. Maybe I'll just rewatch it in Japanese for comparison's sake. Tamers was the best Digimon show. Sure, it was formulaic for the most part like all Digimon shows, but this one had the best characters and the most interesting plots! Serial Experiments Lain the Digimon show. I loved the creepy imagery with "Jeri" near the climax! The human characters were a step above the original in my opinion, but the real stars of the show were the Digimon. Guilmon was probably my favorite Steve Blum role besides Onizuka and Spike. Ah, heck! He is my favorite Steve Blum role! I can't watch the guy without a massive smile on my face. Calumon was... sigh. I don't say this often and I don't know if I'll ever say it again about a character. The guy is adorable. It's also hard to watch him without a big smile. Finally, special mention to the greatest Digimon character in terms of development, Impmon. I hated the smug bastard at first. He bullied Guilmon (which is worse than causing the Holocaust in my book), and kept acting as though Digimon with tamers were idiotic. Even before Beelzemon though, found reason to like him soon after those things. When he constantly attacked the evil digimon, never giving up because he wanted to take the energy from defeating him and digivole, I thought it was pretty amazing. The later stuff that happens with him just caused me to admire him even more. The guy is a legend among children's anime characters in my mind. |
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Top Gun
 Posts: 4731 |
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As a youngling I was on the older end of the Pokemon/Digimon target audience, but even back then I was one of the ones who thought "Man this looks like a total Pokemon ripoff!" (The painfully-90s toy commercials with the kids yelling the monsters' names sure didn't help.) But after reading this article and hearing as much love for the show over the years as I have, apparently I missed out. And since becoming an anime fan and learning that Mamoru Hosoda and Chiaki Konaka of all people majorly contributed to the franchise, apparently I really missed out.
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cannonfodder4000
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God, the character design in the new one sucks so hard. They all have the same face. Ever heard of variety? the original show had that
At least the Digimon look great |
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